Wobbly Leafs miss last call
Coyote ugly loss runs deeper than disallowed goal
Nazem Kadri lifted his head from scanning the league literature Monday morning and said to dressing room cubicle neighbour Matt Martin: “Hey look, we’ve won six in a row.”
Kind of weird that this would come as a news flash to Kadri since everybody with even a passing interest in the Maple Leafs was giddily aware that the team had racked up half a dozen consecutive Ws, a feat unmatched since Dec. 6 to 16, 2014.
How clearly many of us recall the self-congratulatory tone around the Leafs’ inner sanctum back then.
What’s not often mentioned now is that the club immediately afterwards slumped 2-7, triggering the cashiering of coach Randy Carlyle, and subsequently staggered through a 2-17 record under the interim tutelage of poor Peter Horachek.
Perhaps Kadri, among the few holdovers from that era, has erased the disaster from his memory iPod.
It should remain a cautionary tale about how quickly the zig can turn into a zag.
But of course these high-voltage Leafs, beneficiaries of some suddenly stellar goaltending from Freddie Andersen — backto-back shutouts over 48 hours — won’t suffer a similar fate with Mike Babcock at the helm.
No cashiering for Babcock either, come what way. Just a heap o’ cash, far as the eye can see.
So, staring up at the crest of Seven Beauties — last achieved by the Leafs in December 2003, and which would simultaneously be the longest streak in the NHL this season — against the sad-sack league-worst Coyotes. Although . . . Coming off a micro two-win streak of their own, with a snootfull of rekindled pride and positivity, having knocked off a pair of Canadian clubs on the road and doubtless all those Ontario-raised ’Yotes were eager to flash some shine here at the centre of the hockey universe, in front of family and friends.
Toronto couldn’t surmount that serial-seven peak, matched speed for speed and throttled by Arizona’s ferocious trap/ forecheck two-step in a 4-1 defeat, third and fourth into an empty net after Andersen streaked to the bench, slamming his stick furiously on the boards. He was least to blame, frankly. It was on Arizona’s 10th shot of the first period — actually, what would be their last shot of the first period — that An- dersen surrendered his first goal in 141 minutes and 27 seconds, a power-play marker by Brendan Perlini.
On a night of all-around atrocious officiating — figment felonies for Mitch Marner and Ron Hainsey — the most jaw-dropping game-changer was the reversal on Auston Matthews’ whiparound wrister that appeared to knot the score at 2-2 with 3:50 left in regulation time.
It was the only good chance Matthews had the entire game to that point — he’d ring one off the crossbar in a Leaf flurry of desperate offence with two-plus minutes remaining and the extra attacker — and it almost salvaged a point for Toronto.
But Arizona coach Rick Tocchet challenged it on goalie interference and, to everyone’s surprise, the gambit paid off.
Technically, hang the horns on Zach Hyman, whose stick indisputably made contact with Antti Raanta’s pad, if fleetingly and lightly, certainly not enough to impede the Arizona netminder, a couple of seconds later, from coming across for a save on Matthews’ shot. For goodness sake, Hyman was in that crease-crush surrounded by four hack-aw-hack Coyotes, all shoving.
“My stick hits the pad. Obviously you can see that. I was pushed in. But I think the goalie had enough time to get across and get positioned well. But that’s how they’re calling goalie interference, so tough break for us.”
A negative outcome — from the Leaf perspective — appeared more likely as the review period ground on. “It’s not good when they take so long,” said Hyman. “I thought it was going to be upheld, but that’s how it goes.”
From James van Riemsdyk’s corner of the locker room, there was even a whiff of conspiracy, or chicanery. “There’s lots of time where I think goalies are smarter than we give them credit for,” said van Riemsdyk, who accounted for Toronto’s lone goal, his sixth in the last seven games. “They may try to incite some of that contact and then you never really know. Once there’s contact, it’s hard to say what’s going to happen with the call.”
And Raanta did immediately point an accusatory finger at Hyman.
Here’s the thing, a takeaway to ease the loss. Even in what was arguably Matthews’ worst game of the year, he came this close to ensuring at least a kiss-your-sister ending and overtime.
Buzz-buzz in the waning minutes couldn’t ultimately make up for a flat, utterly choked-off opening 10 minutes.
“We should start on time,” Matthews observed sternly. “Tonight, we just didn’t get much going. They clogged up the neutral zone. They’ve got a really good power play and we took too many penalties again. It cost us a couple of goals there.”
Not really such a great power play for Arizona, middle-of-the-league middling, but it’s been pistol hot over the past few games.
Matthews was uncharacteristically cold on offence and sloppy on defence, with a gobsmacking giveaway in the third period, butt rescued only by Andersen’s coming up razor-sharp.
“I didn’t play very well tonight,” Matthews said. “I don’t really like a lot of plays I made and just turned the puck over.”
Of course he’s just one comeback game removed from four games on the sidelines with an upper-body injury. But Matthews looked more sketchy against the Coyotes than he did in Saturday’s 6-0 stomp over Montreal.
State of body aside, it’s fair to wonder how much of an emotional wrench this particular game was for Matthews, playing against “my hometown team” with all the folks back in Arizona watching but no family in the stands here. He looked over-wired.
Matthews reached the century mark of his eye-popping arriviste NHL career in games played, with Mitch Marner just one tick behind as they and their sophomore ’mates ripen into a potent, steadfast roster.
“Not like it’s game 1,000,” Matthews had noted dryly after the morning skate. “It’s game 100.”
Milestones are mere pebbles for Matthews.
For grand-plus territory, you’d be talking Patrick Marleau, who leads by a Route 66 mile in all categories against Arizona but was persona non visibilis Monday night. Ditto William Nylander.
Arizona-raised Matthews clearly has immense affection for the Coyotes (though maybe not so much this morning-after). “When they’re not playing the Leafs, I root for them,” he’d said.
“A lot of good friends on that team. You want to see them succeed because you want to see hockey stay in Arizona.’’
Indeed, if you squint hard enough, these youth-laden Coyotes, forged in the smithy of chronic losing are a bit of a funhouse mirror image of the Leafs a year ago.
Thus he concurs with Marner about the Coyotes’ longer-range upside. “They obviously haven’t gotten off to as good of a start as they wanted. A lot of those games were really close, could have gone either way. But they’ve won two in a row, they have plenty of skill, a lot of explosive dynamic players that can beat you. If you take them lightly, they can make you pay.’’
Exhibit 4-1.